'Celebration Day' movie shows re-formed Led Zeppelin still has it

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham of Led Zeppelin… (PHOTOS BY KEVIN WESTENBERG/MYTHGEM…)

October 19, 2012|By John J. Moser, Of The Morning Call

Watching Led Zeppelin play its first song in "Celebration Day," the new film of its 2007 reunion concert at London's 02 stadium, my initial reaction was to cringe.

Playing together publicly for the first time in 22 years, what was once the greatest rock band in the world looked startlingly older as it dove into "Good Times, Bad Times": Singer Robert Plant like The Wizard of Oz's Cowardly Lion, with a marcelled mane; guitar whiz Jimmy Page like a mad professor with a shock of white hair. The band sounded older, too: maybe more expressive, but certainly far less precise than in its prime.

But over the film's 2-hour-and-4-minute running time (a full two hours of which is concert footage; more about that later), something wonderful happens.

Over 16 songs, the band just gets better and better, until my reaction changed to "man, I wish these guys would tour again."

"Celebration Day," which was screened in Philadelphia for two days this week as part of a 40-market world showing to promote its upcoming release in audio and video formats, captures Led Zeppelin's lightning-in-a-bottle performance not only as a historical document, but as evidence it still literally could be the world's greatest band.

It's nothing short of amazing that Plant, Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham, filling in for his late father, John, could have pulled off such a performance after just two lackluster shows (at 1985's Live Aid and 1988's Atlantic Records 40th anniversary) since breaking up in 1980.

If, indeed, as the band has said, it will not tour again, "Celebration Day" is a fine swan song for Led Zeppelin.

The concert film is just that: It captures the complete 16-song set list from the Dec. 10 concert that was presented in tribute to the late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, shot entirely onstage with 14 cameras, and little else. It starts with a 3-minute historic introduction and there are a precious few fleeting shots of the audience. But that's it.

The more cinematic minded may find that stifling or even boring, but for the music fan it works: cutting all the fat from a concert that set a Guinness Book record for highest ticket demand. There are in-your-face (or the band members' faces) close-ups, and the quality is pristine.

The film's real strength is the music. While all of the songs are at least 36 years old (there are no cuts from albums after 1976's "Presence"), this is emphatically no oldies show.

Despite not having played together, Led Zeppelin clearly has evolved. Perhaps the band, its original members ages 64-68, is no longer the cocksure force it once was, but it's a force for sure, and incredibly tight.

Page remains a maestro — and inventive, as on "Trampled Under Foot," a song released in 1975 that still sounds fresh. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" should school generations of bands in subtlety.

The latter song is a turning point in the film. During it, there's a wonderful exchange of glances between Jones and Page — they know they're nailing the performance.

The concert includes the first public performance of "For Your Life" from "Presence," and it's one of those songs that lets you appreciate Led Zeppelin strictly for its music. There also are the obvious rockers ("Black Dog" comes out early) and sensitive songs such as "Ramble On" have the right feel.

But the best known songs got the best reaction from the crowd at the preview screening. For "No Quarter," the audience reacted as if it was at a concert, and with good reason: It captured Led Zeppelin's mystical air. And there was "The Song Remains the Same," "Misty Mountain Hop" and, of course, a nine-minute "Stairway to Heaven" for which the preview audience applauded.

Plant introduces "Dazed and Confused" by saying, "There are certain songs that have to be there, and this is one of them." The song stretches 12 minutes as Page uses a bow on his guitar strings.

That song and a couple of others contained some of the movie's few weak points. Zeppelin still can be indulgent, and some of the songs are overly long without needing to be. And oddly — don't know if it was the film or the theater — the sound was too low for the rock and roll experience it portrayed.

But the opening of "Kashmir," which closes the main set, actually drew squeals from the preview crowd, and Plant gave perhaps his best performance, with a loud, long scream.

The encore was, naturally, "Whole Lotta Love," then a second encore of "Rock and Roll," on which the theater audience sang along, and applauded at the end.

If that was the reaction to the movie "Celebration Day," imagine the reaction a live Led Zeppelin show would bring.

"Celebration Day" shows the band still could bring it. But until it does, the movie does just fine.